Be Mine
by LisaDouglas
Summary: A student has a crush on Emily while Bob is trying to do something special for her on Valentine's Day.


Chapter One: You've been married too long

It was the twelfth of February and Bob had to quickly decide what he was going to do. Valentines Day was that one-day of the year that always seemed to rush up on him. He never felt adequately prepared for it, which was sad because it was something he and Emily always went all out for. This year was their sixth Valentines Day together and he thought he was totally tapped out of ideas. At least ones that were new and interesting.

"Wanna go out to lunch Bob?" Jerry asked, leaning in Bob's office door.

"Oh uh-not today Jerry, I'm trying to think of a good Valentine's Day surprise for Emily."

"How about roses? That's what I'm doing for my date."

"Roses are, I don't know Jerry, kind of old hat. I want something really different…special…romantic even…" He'd given Emily roses countless times just because. Roses on Valentines Day weren't exactly special anymore.

"Romantic?" Jerry laughed. "Bob face it, you've been married for 5 years, what do you know about romance?"

Bob just stared at his friend for a moment. He hated when he'd say these kinds of things to him about having been married for X amount of years. He enjoyed his marriage and thought it made him a more mature person than Jerry on some level. Not only that, Jerry underestimated marriage. Bob supposed his friend saw it as dull, binding convention. But he thought it had made him grow a lot as a person. Among other things, like maturity, his marriage had made him better at being romantic, compassionate, even open-minded.

"L-look Jerry. Valentines Day is usually kind of special for us and I've run out of ideas: at least this year I have."

"Yeah but your married Bob." He said again, laughing this time. "You're supposed to run out of ideas."

"Yeah I'm married. This, by the way, means that I am obligated to come up with something better! Something memorable. Heartfelt. Something that shows that, that I'm still crazy about her. And worse: every year we come up with something for each other…what if she comes up with something better for me than I do for her…that's just not going to work."

"T-that's kind of a tall order." Jerry admitted, biting his lip.

"Sure it is. And look at you. You're just a date. And as just a date, you can do exactly for this girl what you did for the girl you went out with on Valentines Day last year, and the year before and she'll never know the difference."

Jerry felt bad about this. Bob was right and had hit a sensitive subject…he did do the same thing for a different girl every year. Jerry was embarrassed and wanted to back away and sneak back to his own office. Instead he paused for a second and decided to continue with trying to convince his friend that he was washed up and had lost his touch at romancing a woman because he was married.

"Well…" He began, but was cut off by Carol, who brushed past him into Bob's office and sat on the couch.

"Please, you guys think this is a hard time of year for you?!" Carol inquired as if she were talking to the oldest and dearest _girlfriends_. "I'm the one who's always dateless or if I have a Valentine it's not exactly anyone to write home about. And you're right Bob, roses…when you've been with someone for a while, roses on Valentines Day are clichéd."

Bob laughed.

"If I were Emily, you know what I'd want you to do?" Carol asked. Bob had come to like her advice when it concerned Emily and so he listened attentively. Jerry tuned in as well, secretly wondering if her advice would be good enough for him to use…something he'd never admit to of course.

"Go away for a weekend! Go skiing or something." Carol suggested.

"No, unfortunately we did that last year. I-I need to talk to somebody else, somebody who's been married a long, long time. Carol, do you think you could get my Dad on the phone?"

"Sure thing Bob." She said, getting up off the couch and heading back to her desk. She liked this suggestion. Jerry laughed.

"What's so funny?" Bob asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's simple." He said. "Don't do anything!"

"Don't do anything?!"

"Yeah. Stay home. Turn the lights down, play some nice music…"

"Jerry this isn't about sex."

"Sure it is, it's Valentine's Day. You've been married too long Bob." Jerry shook his head and walked away, deciding that he'd take a rain check on lunch until after Bob solved his ridiculous Valentines Day problem, one that had numerous easy fixes. He didn't want his friend's way of thinking rubbing off on him either. That was for sure.

Bob wanted to counter with the knowledge that Jerry had never had a true meaningful relationship with a woman: one that involved consideration of her heart over lust but he refrained, not wanting to start a fight.

"Bob. Your Dad's on line two."

"Thanks Carol." He called, then picked up the phone. "Hi Dad…yeah uh, look it's about to be Valentines Day…yes I know you'll probably be up at your cabin…I was just wondering. I'm trying to think of something special: romantic to do for Emily this year and…no, no…yes, yeah Dad I, I ran out of ideas." Bob hadn't wanted to admit this directly because he knew his father would tease him about it. "It's a ridiculous holiday and you and Mom stopped celebrating it when I was five. Uh-huh. A-alright Dad, have a good fishing trip."


End file.
